Climate Fresk at the Montreal General Hospital

When nine participants enter the Livingston Room at the MGH, two large tables covered in brown paper (where participants can doodle to their heart's content) await them. On a Tuesday morning, a ‘Climate Fresk’ is being held by the MUHC Sustainable Development Committee to see how employees can better understand climate change.

Climate Fresk is a playful, educational workshop that sets out the main aspects of global warming in just three hours. Largely grounded in IPCC reports, which share the established scientific consensus on the subject, the activity involves placing 42 cards on a table, each representing an aspect of the phenomenon (for example, fossil fuel combustion, melting glaciers, carbon sinks and climate refugees) based on links between them. The objective is to create a cause-and-effect chain on the table: the famous Fresk.

Using this activity, the French government has committed to training all 25,000 senior civil servants in an environmental transition by the end of 2025. As part of this exemplary approach, the country’s 200 directors of central administration are given priority for training.

Mickael Brard, host of COOP Sens Climat, hands a deck of cards to the small group. ‘Human activities, ‘CO2 emissions’, ‘Additional greenhouse effect’: the cards have to be placed in order of cause and effect. Two participants discuss: what is ocean acidification, and is it caused by CO2?

The first cards are placed on a large table. The sequence is not linear. “A consequence can have several causes, and a cause can have several consequences,” explains Mickael to reassure the group. The important thing is to talk about it.

Once the activity is complete, both teams discuss possible solutions. It’s human actions that cause climate change, they observe, and humanity suffers the consequences of their actions. “It's caused by mankind, and we are harmed for our actions,” Francine tells us.

“The consequences of climate change are very stressful to me,” confides Tania. “What can we do about it? But even if I have a pessimistic view of the planet's future, we can see from this activity that we have solutions as well as the ability to change the rules of the game.”

“It's important to talk about this subject within the hospital because there are specific solutions we can bring to our work environment. Some eco-friendly measures can even allow the MUHC to economize. That’s why we need to talk about it rationally. What's certain is that we must make individual and collective steps,” asserts Marie-Christine.

The training will be followed up, as Pierre-Marc Legris, Director of Technical Services, organizes a first Climate Fresk for some of our managers this fall!